by Will
This was my second Scillies adventure, but the first time in the open crew. That meant a total of six races over three days — two Vets races on the Friday, then four in the Open. Although we’d all trained hard from the start of the year, I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d make it through to Sunday evening!
Friday morning arrived and the wet & windy weather of the past few months gave way to blue skies and sunshine. At our campsite in St Mary’s the Affinity crew enjoyed a chilled start to the day with freshly brewed coffee & porridge. Cat & Oli left early to join the coxes’ briefing, and the rest of us gathered on the beach to get Grace ready. Already the adrenaline was pumping — the atmosphere is just amazing, so many other Cornish gigs lined up on the sand, ready for the weekend of racing.
First up, the Vets St Agnes race — thirty or so gigs at the start line, racing back to the finish line at St Mary’s harbour. Our main priority was to avoid the strict disqualification that would come with being over the line when the race started. Cat kept us focused & calm, and then we were into it, settling into our race pace, trying to focus on the stroke and not the boats & crews around us. We were pleased with the result, which saw us land a spot in Group B for the Nut Rock race at 6pm — the wind had died a little by then, there was less chop in the bay … and we surprised ourselves with an awesome effort, taking 6th place in the group and 18th out of 32 vets boats overall.
Almost one month on and my memory of the next two days is a bit of a blur. But I do remember the incredible feeling of rowing out to the start of the St Agnes race with over 120 other crews, the silence at the start line followed by an all-round assault on the senses: heart rate pumping; coxes shouting instructions; the splash of over 750 blades cutting into the water. I don’t remember which race it was, but it turns out there’s nothing quite like the sensation of rowing alongside another crew, at times almost clashing oars, and slowly but surely moving past them — it’s addictive!
Over the course of the four men’s open races, pushed on by our cool, calm & “very loud” cox Pippa, we moved up a group and finished the championships 94th out of 128 boats — or 73% in the overall final rankings. Thanks to James, who had calculated Affinity men’s crew had placed 80% last year and 85% in 2022, we had hoped to get to 75%. We were chuffed to make such decent progress!
If you’ve not been to the Scillies for the world champs, it’s definitely something to consider for next year — the islands are stunning, the atmosphere over the weekend is amazing, and there really is nothing else quite like it.
by Pippa
And so, after five months of training with the Men’s crew we finally made it out to St Marys and the Scillies. Oli and I went to the coxes’ meeting together on the Saturday morning and the main message was “if anything goes wrong, it’s the cox’s responsibility”. If the boat crosses the disqualification line before the race begins… it’s the cox’s fault, if the boat drifts across the disqualification line before the race begins (even though wind and tide)… it’s the cox’s fault, if there’s a collision… it’s the cox’s fault, if there’s a clash of oars.. the cox’s fault. Disqualifications and poor coxswainship were mentioned of the previous day's races. This did nothing to assuage my nerves.
So many deep long breaths to relax later, we made it to the start line of the St Agnes race – 120 boats and a mile long. There was strong wind and strong tide and we drifted often from our starting berth meaning we kept having to reposition. And then the countdown. As soon as we were off my nerves went, and the excitement took over. I even had presence of mind to look across the water and take in all the other boats and crews; we’d all worked for months towards this moment and this race. There were more boats around us than I imagined but that was easy enough to navigate, basically “don’t crash” was my motto. We placed in Group I and I absolutely loved it.
If we were in the top two of our next race we would move up to the next group; Obviously we all wanted to move up a group. The end of this race (photo below) was incredibly exhilarating as we raced against two other boats for the two top spots, we were clashing oars as we crossed the finish line. There was no way I was going to move from our position right next to the buoy which gave us right of way; we “had water” in rowing terms. And it was here that I learned what I would say to motivate the crew, it came from a deeply competitive place which was something like “row, motherknuckers, row”.
In the next race there is, again, the possibility to move up to the next group if we placed in the top two, but also down to the previous group if we placed in the bottom two. None of us wanted to go back down. The next race we placed in the middle of Group H meaning we stayed in the group. By this point the crew had rowed five races in three days. They were knackered. Oli had rowed five and coxed four races. Overall, the mens’ crew moved up in the Open races to a new group and improved their positioning from the previous two years.
One of my highlights was hearing myself calling power tens in the video of our final race. The commentator's boat was close by to Grace and said "you might be able to hear the cox of Grace O'Malley, she has a very loud voice”! The atmosphere amongst Affinity folks was so easy and harmonious. It took me a week to come down from the high of competing and the joy of working and being together.
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